Plans afoot for Urban Champs
JAMAICA’S track & field circuit is missing one important area meet for high school athletes, but this could be a thing of the past come next year.
The Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association (JAAA) is currently faced with this decision.
Apart from Boys’ and Girls’ Champs, regions such as Eastern, Western and Central, have their own Championships, which leaves the urban area without a meet of their own.
A group, which organises sporting events, mostly in the Corporate Area, has approached the JAAA to sanction “Urban Champs” for next year February. A source close to the planning of the event confirmed the development, while adding that they are also looking to the Inter-Secondary Schools Sports Association (ISSA) to sanction the meet as a qualifier for Boys’ and Girls’ Champs.
When contacted, President of the JAAA Dr Warren Blake would only say: “We are having our calendar conference on the 25th and I don’t want to speak about that now.
“We will address all the issues then,” he said.
Urban Champs will provide extra competition for the top four boys’ schools – Calabar, Kingston College (KC), Jamaica College (JC) and Wolmer’s. The Queens School, Wolmer’s Girls’, Camperdown and St Andrew High would be the top girls’ teams.
St Jago boys and girls have participated in Central Champs over the years, but could move to Urban Champs.
According to information, ISSA would have to take several things into consideration before approving the meet, which many believe would compete with sponsorships with Champs. Efforts to get a comment from ISSA’s President, Dr Walton Small, was unsuccessful.
